On Terada examines pandemic headline artwork in conversation at The Polygon Gallery, January 10
Artist Ron Terada and curator Dieter Roelstraete unpack the creation process behind TL; DR’s 325 hand-painted news headlines
Ron Terada’s TL; DR and Rachel Khedoori’s Untitled (Iraq Book Project) (2008–2010) in From Slander’s Brand at The Polygon Gallery. Photo by Akeem Nermo
The Polygon Gallery hosts On Terada from 6:30 pm to 8 pm on January 10
“THE MURDER HORNET Is the 2020 B-Plot You Probably Didn’t See Coming” is a headline that vividly captures a moment in time—despite perhaps not being the most eloquently worded.
In Ron Terada’s new piece TL; DR (2021) on display in The Polygon Gallery exhibition From Slander’s Brand, the punchy phrase is part of a hand-painted collection of 325 headlines sourced from The Verge, an American tech-news website, during the peak of the pandemic.
Terada is hosting a conversation about his body of work called On Terada with curator Dieter Roelstraete at the gallery on January 10 from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. Doors open at 6 pm, and admission is by donation courtesy of BMO Financial Group.
Born in 1969, lifelong Vancouverite Terada produces text-based conceptual artworks that span painting, photography, videography, and music. The Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design) alum’s creations also delve into the everyday—think posters, publications, billboards, and signage.
Among the most fascinating aspects of TL; DR is that Terada reformatted all of The Verge’s headlines so that they’re in a Cheltenham serif typeface that’s nearly identical to the one used by the New York Times, rather than the site’s usual sans-serif font. This allows the headlines to present themselves as highly authoritative news to viewers, despite sounding much more informal than the average New York Times article.
TL; DR, which is internet slang for “too long; didn’t read”, spans a wall length of 205 feet. The acrylic-on-canvas piece took Terada two years to compile and create.
“What attracted me to The Verge in the first place was that some of the headlines just didn’t seem real to me. They almost seemed like fake news,” Terada told Stir ahead of From Slander’s Brand’s opening in November.
The exhibition features two other bodies of work alongside TL; DR: Hannah Darabi’s Enghelab Street, a Revolution Through Books: Iran 1979–1983 (2019), and Rachel Khedoori’s Untitled (Iraq Book Project) (2008–2010). It’s on display until February 4 at The Polygon Gallery.
Guests can RSVP to On Terada for free via the gallery’s website.
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